We will try to support any family that needs us, as long as they have at least one child under five.
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If you are a parent with at least one child under the age of five then Home-Start Sheffield may be able to help you.
Support is usually provided via volunteers who visit in your own home for 3 hours a week to offer support, friendship and practical assistance.
Support groups are also available in certain areas of the city, where you can meet and chat with other parents.
The best way to find out what support from Home-Start Sheffield really means is to read the comments from families quoted throughout this site and below.
Please note: Home-Start volunteers are not home helps, do not provide a babysitting service and cannot take children to school on a regular basis, although practical help may often be part of a visit.
What do I do next?
If you would like support:
You can contact Home-Start Sheffield directly and a co-ordinator will visit you at home to discuss your needs and decide whether Home-Start Sheffield is appropriate for you.
You can contact your health visitor, social worker or any other agency you are involved with and ask them to make the referral for you.
Comments From Family
“I have Agoraphobia and my volunteer helps me to try and go out each week. I call her my bit of freedom. She never forces me to go out but helps support me and I feel safe with her and more able to try and tackle places I would normally avoid.”
Sharron
“It’s helped me get back to normal. It’s helped me get back into part-time work. I’m a new person now.”
Karen
“My volunteer offers me an extra pair of hands which is a rare luxury for me and an absolute necessity being a single parent with no support from the father of my children and little support from family and friends. She will read to my children while I can take the time to prepare a nice evening meal, she will bath the children while I tidy up and occasionally take them to the park so I can have a break. I even ended up baking a cake last Wednesday with my children, while she was here, which believe it or not, became a daunting prospect previously. She offers me adult company when I need it, which enables me to see the wider perspective of a situation and stop me becoming stressed and depressed. Often we chat about the mundane or trivial but this can be an important part of enabling our family to cope. I do not know what I would do without the help of Home-Start Sheffield during these demanding years.”
Kate
Families contact us to ask for support for a variety of reasons, which might be because they are:
Feeling lonely or isolated.
Finding it hard to cope with everyday chores.
Feeling unhappy.
Finding it hard to cope because of illness.
Finding it hard to get out and about with young children.
Finding it hard to cope with the children.
Lacking confidence and self-esteem.
Lacking information about where to go for help, or find services and other resources in the community.
Dealing with difficult relationships within the family or relationship breakdown.
Having difficulty dealing with a bereavement in the family.
Worrying that the children are unhappy.
